Rising storylines to observe after PGA Tour’s West Coast swing

With its longshot winners and cantankerous climate, this 12 months’s West Coast swing on the PGA Tour has come and gone.

What stays are questions on what this 12 months — and the longer term — will appear to be in males’s professional golf. Earlier than the Florida circuit and main season begins, listed below are some lasting snapshots from the primary two months of the season.

Scottie Scheffler’s Kryptonite

By now, the stats have turn into as unavoidable because the physique language Scheffler exhibits when he tosses his putter or a ball in frustration following a missed putt — each of which he did at Riviera final week.

Each time Scheffler tees it up, his ballstriking ensures he’ll be in competition, but his placing will get in the best way. On the Genesis Invitational, Scheffler ranked lifeless final in placing out of the gamers who made the reduce, and he presently ranks 128th in strokes gained: placing on tour. As soon as once more, as if to pour salt on his personal wound, Scheffler additionally leads the complete tour in strokes gained: tee-to-green.

However what is probably most alarming is how a lot Scheffler is clearly grinding over his placing, whereas it’s seemingly not getting any higher. He is switched putters (albeit simply from one blade-style putter to a different), started working with a world-class placing coach and spent ample time practising each his alignment and stroke. Watching him on the observe greens at each Pebble and Riviera, it was clear that his placing woes weren’t a story however slightly a difficulty Scheffler is keenly conscious of and making an attempt to resolve.

And but, the problem persists. Final 12 months, Scheffler was in a position to overcome these struggles by placing collectively a season of historic ballstriking proportions on his approach to wins on the WM Phoenix Open and the Gamers Championship in addition to 17 prime 10s and the present No. 1 world rating. However throughout majors, his struggles on the greens had been enhanced, particularly when merely a mean placing week might have doubtless secured a victory after a top-10 end on the Masters and top-5 finishes on the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

With this 12 months’s majors arising quickly, the West Coast swing did not precisely present a lot promise when it comes to Scheffler bettering his placing. It is secure to wonder if the 27-year-old will attain the tip of the 12 months and not using a main win as a result of his placing when each different a part of his sport is able to proceed including to his résumé.

The celebrities’ hunch

The previous two years, the Genesis Invitational has been a reminder of how a lot Tiger Woods remains to be the game’s prime needle-mover. This 12 months, despite the fact that his taking part in time was reduce quick by sickness, the thrill surrounding his opening spherical Thursday was palpable, with what felt like many of the crowd on-site following his group. It did not matter how Woods carried out, individuals nonetheless wished to look at.

The longevity of Woods’ magnetic pull stays, nevertheless it additionally exposes. Whereas the West Coast swing had a number of distinctive storylines in its winners (hi there Nick Dunlap!), Wyndham Clark was the one top-25 participant on the earth who received a event at Pebble Seashore. And that was one which was reduce quick after 54 holes as a result of climate.

Whereas these wins by Dunlap, Nick Taylor and not too long ago Hideki Matsuyama confirmed the depth of the tour, it was additionally a reminder of the top-end expertise they’ve both misplaced to LIV Golf or is not performing as much as its ordinary degree thus far in 2024. Examine that to final 12 months when the early winners on tour had been Jon Rahm (thrice), Scheffler and Max Homa, and it is not essentially the most star-studded state of affairs to open up a season.

Rahm alone would not repair all the pieces, however very similar to Scheffler, he’s a kind of gamers who at all times rises to the highest of the leaderboard over the course of 4 rounds and sometimes has a chance to win. His wins within the early a part of final season arrange his Masters victory seamlessly, giving the 12 months in golf (a minimum of on the PGA Tour facet) a really clear storyline that featured a dominant power. Parity, in sports activities, is often solely good in principle.

Event outcomes, particularly with the depth within the sport proper now, are maybe extra unpredictable than ever. However whereas the fields on the subsequent two PGA Tour tournaments (Mexico Open and Cognizant Traditional) do not get way more thrilling, each the subsequent two signature occasions at Bay Hill and the Gamers would do effectively to characteristic a real battle and a winner from the cream of the crop within the sport.

Tiger Woods’ ramp-up plan

The ripple impact of Woods withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational as a result of influenza goes far past this week. Final 12 months, the Genesis was the one event Woods performed earlier than the Masters, the place he ultimately withdrew after three rounds as a result of plantar fasciitis that required an ankle fusion process that saved him out of play till December.

In his post-surgery return on the Hero World Problem within the Bahamas, Woods already mentioned on file that, if all goes effectively, his purpose is to play in a single event a month via the most important season. With a brief stint on the Genesis in February, March now awaits. After his solely accomplished spherical at Riviera, Woods did word he is been experiencing again spasms at dwelling, however that these are only a product of his again being fused and never one thing he can predict or wholly keep away from.

“Issues are a bit bit sore, however that is to be anticipated,” Woods mentioned. “That is nothing that we weren’t ready for.”

The 15-time main winner has remained steadfast in his perception that his return to golf after numerous surgical procedures is rooted in his need to compete and win. However in preparation for Augusta, 24 holes at Riviera merely is not going to chop it. Whether or not it is Bay Hill or the Gamers — the previous being the place he is received eight occasions and the latter being the simpler stroll — all indicators level to Woods having to go well with up for one more event that he is not internet hosting.

The ready sport

From the moment response of gamers following the deal between the PGA Tour and Strategic Sports activities Group at Pebble Seashore to watching Boston Purple Sox proprietor John Henry stroll across the grounds of Riviera Nation Membership, it has been an fascinating few weeks for the PGA Tour.

Whereas everybody from Rory McIlroy to Jordan Spieth to Rickie Fowler appeared to vary on what an integration between the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia and LIV Golf with the PGA Tour would appear to be sooner or later, all gamers might agree on a sure sentiment to explain the SSG deal, its $12 billion valuation of the PGA Tour and the participant fairness that was introduced to be a part of the deal:

“We all know as a lot as you do. We all know as a lot as everybody else does.”

Whereas the tour did ship out a memo outlining the totally different classes concerning how a lot fairness might be given out and to whom within the wake of the formation of PGA Tour Enterprises, the small print for what this implies for the precise golf product stay unclear. Gamers like Collin Morikawa and Mackenzie Hughes have expressed dissatisfaction with all the pieces from the TV product to the best way cash has overtaken the sport.

“I simply assume that it is unlucky the place we’re within the sport proper now, the place evidently it is all in regards to the cash and it is all about, how a lot cash can I make?” Hughes mentioned throughout Sunday’s CBS walk-and-talk at Riviera.

“I feel we misplaced the spirit of the sport within the course of, and it was simply by no means the rationale I performed on the PGA Tour … now we’re in a spot the place I feel followers are simply typically fed up with it, to be sincere, and people are the those who drive our sport.”

Some gamers see a dire scenario whereas others see gentle on the finish of the tunnel, accepting that whether or not LIV Golf and the PGA Tour are introduced again collectively in some unspecified time in the future or not, the tour wanted to evolve with a purpose to enhance.

“I feel it was a reasonably large danger to depart our enterprise mannequin in the identical place an excessive amount of longer,” Adam Scott informed a bunch of reporters at Pebble Seashore.

“I feel at this level this is sort of a line within the sand if it needs to be for the PGA Tour and you’ll put all the pieces on the desk proper now so far as I am involved, yeah, let’s take a look at the whole thing. I feel all the pieces may be mentioned proper now, and I feel that is thrilling.”